How is it possible to read music?

.   In my post-childhood life (sometimes called "the grownup years") I've had a very few experiences with learning non-speech languages.  The first was Morse Code, which the instructors preferred we call the Di-Dah language, since you learn it by sound, not by thinking about the dots and dashes.  

.   I've been trying to learn sign language.   I haven't gotten the hang of it yet, but hope I will eventually.  I suppose I should have mentioned the learning of body language, as that is authentic communication, too.   Lately I'm learning to read sheet music.  We have language-oriented brains, so how is it possible to do these things?  Is it because, bizarre or extraordinary though these various symbols may be, are they still processed as if they were spoken language? 

.  A page of music sits before me.  At first glance it appears to be a meaningless jumble of lines and circles, something like Chinese writing appears to a Westerner -- you know it has a pattern and that it has meaning, but seemingly impossible to interpret.

.  When I first set about learning to read music I thought that the goal was to be able to tell what the note names are (A through G, and sharps and flats), the length of time symbolized by the individual notes, and the meaning of the other things on the page, like "p" and "f" and "diminuendo".

.  Have you ever practiced something over and over and still seem not to make any progress, and then one day, without warning, you jump to a new level all at once?  Something must still have been going on below consciousness and then when it's done it bursts into our awareness as if from nowhere. 

.   That's what reading music was like.  I learned all the other stuff, but it was basically lots of  terminology.  The real magic happened when I was no longer thinking of the meaning of things on the page.  There just isn't time for that.  The act of producing music goes by fast, all happening quickly  -- too quickly to think about it.  At some point I realized I was singing from the score without actively being aware of the meanings of the symbols.  I'd look at the next note and it just tumbled out, right on pitch and for the proper length of time, as if by itself.  It became like reading a language.  We are no longer conscious of how we manage to read a book.  After so many years of schooling the meaning seems to leap off the page by itself.  Wow.  The old dog can learn new tricks after all!